


Hospital

by TheMidnightRiot



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Childhood Friends, Childhood Trauma, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Homelessness, Hospitalization, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Orphans, Recovery, i tried to make this slowburn and i failed lol they just get right on to it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21744925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMidnightRiot/pseuds/TheMidnightRiot
Summary: "Naruto Uzumaki recieves a phone call in the dead of night informing him that his best friend Sasuke, who'd been missing since they were twelve years old, is alive, well and staying in the hospital right across the street recovering from a suicide attempt. Thus begins Sasuke Uchiha's long recovery and a much expected reunion with his two best friends, Naruto and Sakura; but when Sasuke's discharged from the hospital and moves into the estranged Uzumaki's apartment, feelings will blossom old and new, confrontations will arise and the most important question could unite them or tear them apart: Sasuke, do you remember that day?"This fic is super corny ngl. WARNING: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE/SELF-HARM/PARENTAL DEATH/DRUG USE. Title inspired by Lydia's "Hospital".
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 9
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS FIC IS SUPER CORNY. There will be mentions of some pretty heavy stuff, but I'll post in the tags/fic description and I'll try to warn at the beginning of this chapter. Please read at your own discretion.

It was almost midnight when the phone rang. Naruto fumbled to reach his buzzing cell phone from the night stand and, after dropping it several consecutive times, managed to groggily answer it.

"Hello?" the blondie mumbled, half-asleep.

  
"They found Sasuke" a female voice announced from the other end of the line. It was more than enough to shock Naruto awake. He clumsily threw his bedsheets across the matress and sat up on his side of the bed, his heart beating like a racing stallion. 

  
Naruto scrambled to ask the million questions he had for Sakura, who had just called him in the dead of night to tell him the news, but the words got tangled with each other and, in such a state, he only managed to cohesively ask the single most important one:

  
"Is he... alive?" Sakura could barely make out Naruto's voice. He'd wanted to ask this loud and clear, but the words came out like a trembling whisper; as if saying it out loud, or even thinking it, could summon the possibility of it coming true. Of Sasuke being...

  
"Yes" 

  
A sigh of relief. There was a brief moment of silence between them,- Naruto was too shaken up to speak-, before Sakura continued:

  
"We'll go see him tomorrow."

  
"Wait! Please, don't hang up, I have so many questions to ask you." Naruto clutched the phone like it was gonna fall apart if he loosened his grip on it. His mind was scrambled and a million thoughts raced across his mind at exactly the same speed of a billion miles per hour. The possibility of composing any semblance of a coherent sentence at that moment was very slim.

  
Sasuke Uchiha had been missing since they were twelve years old. After Sasuke's older brother Itachi had shot their parents in cold blood and later killed himself awaiting trial, Sasuke had understandably never been the same. He'd been living with an estranged aunt and uncle when he ran away, never to be seen or heard from again. Everyone in Konoha, their sweet little hometown, had taken him for dead.

  
Not Naruto, though. Sasuke had been one of his bestest friends, if not THE best, in the whole wide world. They used to be thick as thieves, even though they were at each other's throats half of the time. Even ten years later, long after having moved from Konoha to the big city, deep down he still harbored hope that Sasuke would someday turn up alive and well, and everything would be the same way it once had been.

  
He hadn't actually expected it to come true, though. 

  
Naruto was terrified that Sakura was gonna hang up on him and leave him alone with his racing mind. He knew he wasn't going back to sleep that night.

  
"You can get your answers from the man himself tomorrow" the pink-haired beauty teased. 

  
"But where is he? Is it far from here? What time can we go see him? A-and for how long? I-"

  
"He's in the hospital across the street from your apartment and NO you can not go over there right now." Naruto had practically teleported to the other side of the room and was already fumbling for his jacket before she finished the sentence. He pouted and defeatedly sat back down on his bed.

"Boo you"

"It's not visiting hours and NO they won't make an exception for you."

  
"But I'm his bestest friend in the whole wide world!" Naruto pouted "...or at least I hope I still am, y'know."

  
"I promise you I'll be at your house first thing in the morning and we'll go see him together, alright?" Sakura said, and Naruto could feel her smiling through the phone the way she always did when she made him a promise.

  
"But do you pinky promise, Saku?" he said playfully, and Sakura giggled at Naruto's ever-childish nature. 

  
"I pinky promise you that I'll be at your house first thing in the morning and we'll go see Sasuke together, alright?" she assured him. There was another silence between them before Sakura added:

  
"I'm gonna hang up now, okay? I'll be at your apartment at seven sharp, so PLEASE be ready by then."

  
"WAIT! Don't hang up yet." Sakura was starting to get pissed.

  
"What now, Naruto? You can ask me all the questions you want tomorrow!"

  
"Is Sasuke alright? Why's he in a hospital?" his voice changed from his playful tone to a more solemn, concerned one. Sakura noticed this shift and tried to reassure him.

  
"They didn't let me see him, but from what I was told he was in, uh, 'stable' condition." There was a brief pause. Naruto's breath was audible through the phone. "If they're letting us see him then he can't be in that bad of a shape, right?" Sakura half-assedly reassured her best friend, "...right?"

  
"I guess..." Naruto didn't sound too convinced himself either, "well, I'm gonna head back to bed now and try to get some sleep. See you in the morning, Sakura."

  
"Goodnight, Naruto" she said as she blew little kisses into the phone, a cute little gesture they'd taken to with each other many years ago. Naruto reciprocated and promptly hung up, placing his phone back down on the nightstand and laying his head on his pillow. But he knew getting any more sleep was out of the question.

  
After rolling around in bed for hours in a futile attempt to fall asleep, Naruto turned his eyes towards the window on the side of his bed. He rolled off of the king-sized bed that took up most of his bedroom and dragged his feet over to said window and looked up at the moon. Mindlessly resting his head on his hand, he thought of Sasuke. The sight of a full moon always brought Sasuke to mind. Namely, a particular memory he shared with Sasuke. 

  
Naruto buried his face in his hands and squealed like a schoolgirl. He hadn't thought about that in years, at least not thoroughly. It sporadically swam up to his stream of consciousness and tied his stomach in knots, made him feel flushed and anxious like nothing else could. The feeling was ambivalent; the memory was both dreadful and cherished to him, because it was one of the last times he'd seen Sasuke before he disappeared, and he wasn't sure if Sasuke would remember.

  
He wasn't sure if he wanted him to remember. 

  
-

  
Sasuke had never once stopped thinking about the past: his friends, his family, his life in the quiet residential town of Konoha. What most occupied his thoughts, though, was a particular reckless blondie who'd gathered himself quite the reputation for his rowdiness. Sasuke was a polar opposite of Naruto, no doubt, which is why they complemented each other like day and night. It's what made their bond special, he guessed. 

  
Like the sun and the moon.

  
Defeated, Naruto slumped back into his bed face-first and tried to drift off to sleep. Somewhere not far from him, a certain raven-haired fellow did just the same: lay back down on his too-stiff pillow and try to get some rest before more healthcare professionals barged in on him first thing in the morning to badger him with questionnaire after questionnaire. It's not like he had the energy or patience to deal with them when he was well-rested, either. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if this chapter is too long. Please advice me in the comments if you feel like some chapters are too drawn-out or lengthy, I'll try to split them into shorter ones if it makes the fic easier to read.
> 
> ALSO: I feel like I wrote Karin too OOC, but I'm sort of adapting it to what the fic needs. In this particular work she's the rich heiress of some super billionaire family that owns a bunch of hospitals, and she's also not an Uzumaki (I didn't find it necessary to relate her to Naruto) so I made up some random last name for her.

Naruto was startled awake by a loud banging that sent him jumping out of bed. Bewildered and still half-asleep, he stumbled and tripped over everything on his way to the front door, where he was welcomed by an extremely pissed off Sakura, who was inches away from tearing the door off its hinges to wake his blonde ass up.

"NA-RU-TO!" Sakura spat out each syllable with more fury than the last, "I thought I -TOLD- you to be ready first thing in the morning! Look at you, you're not even fully awake."

This wasn't uncommon for them, Sakura had a habit of scolding her best friend like an unruly child (and he had a habit of behaving like one). Naruto could've almost seen smoke coming out of Sakura's head if he hadn't been squinting, one foot still deep into slumber. He scratched his bird's nest of a hair and clumsily wiped off some drool hanging off his bottom lip.

"G-good morning, Sakura-chan..." he mumbled before inviting her in. Sakura stepped into Naruto's humble one-bedroom apartment and looked around: the place was just as much of a mess!

Dishes piling up in the sink, piles of clothes lying on the floor and on most of the furniture, stacks of empty milk cartons and takeout boxes cluttered about... Huffing and puffing and cursing under her breath while she picked up stuff off the floor, Sakura wondered when was the last time someone had vacuumed this damned apartment. She'd promised herself last time was the last time she cleaned up after Naruto, but she feared for the day she'd show up to find him crushed under a pile of ramen cups because he couldn't be arsed to pick up a broom from time to time.

Naruto dragged his feet to the bathroom and splashed his face in an effort to wake himself up. His mind had been just as restless in dreams as it was in vigil. Nightmare after nightmare scared him awake multiple times during the night, and at one point he'd woken up screaming Sasuke's name like he used to back when he was twelve. Except this time there was no Kushina to comfort him back to sleep.

By the time Naruto came out of the bathroom Sakura had done a fair job of tidying up the room. She'd scooped up the dirty clothes into a laundry basket, washed the dishes, took out the trash and was dusting Naruto's couch while he stood dumbfounded in the bathroom's doorway.

"Uhh, Sakura... how long was I in the bathroom for?" he asked, genuinely concerned for his ability to lose track of time so easily.

"Oh, not for long, I'm just a lighting bolt when it comes to cleaning your apartment" Sakura winked at him while she dusted a framed picture hanging above the couch, "I'll wait for you to finish up, but don't take too long now, visiting hours are just about to start at the hospital."

Again, Sakura hadn't even had time to finish the sentence before Naruto materialized in front of her, fully dressed and beaming from cheek to cheek.

"I'mreadynowlet'sgo!" he gabbled, but Sakura knew Naruto spoke at about ten times his normal speed when he was excited about something. Seeing him like this,-arms behind his back, swinging back and forth on the balls of his feet like a child-, brought a warm smile to her face; it'd been years since the last time she saw him so excited about anything.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and tilted his head sideways. "What're you so smiley for, huh?"

"Oh, nothing" she giggled, "it's just... it's nice seeing you so happy for once."

"Whaaa? But I'm -always- happy!" he thew his head backwards and stretched out his arms, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, life of the party!"

"You're gonna be Naruto Uzumaki LATE to the party if we don't head out now" Sakura poked at his chest, causing him to almost lose balance and wobble his arms about like an inflatable dummy outside of a tire store. He stuck out her tounge at her and she promptly did the same, and they kept making faces at each other as they exited the apartment.

Their friendship hadn't changed at all since they were kids.

As they swiftly rushed down the steps towards the sidewalk, Naruto tucked his hands in his pockets and secretly hoped that it'd be the same for him and Sasuke.

-

The timeline of Sasuke's life from his twelfth to his eighteenth birthday was a bit muddled, but what they could gather from witness accounts (and heaps of private investigators) was that he'd presumably been living on the streets when a medical student by the name of Karin had found him and taken him in. Sasuke lived with a couple of fellow troubled youths for a couple of years in a clandestine hideout (that was actually an abandoned property owned by Karin's parents), working clandestine jobs under a false identity.

A week prior to Sakura's phone call, on the anniversary of his parents' murder, Karin had found him downing a bunch of pills from a medicine cabinet they kept in the "house" and rushed him to the emergency room. Sasuke was promptly put under observation and after Karin, who was reportedly very cooperative with hospital staff, spoke with the police, they set out to contact Sasuke's next of kin.

  
Sasuke's aunt and uncle, his only remaining family, had died two years ago. Karin asked Sasuke if he still had anyone left to call. He only gave two names: Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki.

-

Sasuke sat on his hospital bed, resting his head on his hand while he looked out the window, deep in thought. It was cloudy outside and the weather forecast playing on the radio announced chances of rain later that day. Sasuke thought of swimming pools, of treehouses, of running wide open in fields that went on forever, of scraped knees and muddy cheeks. He thought of hot breath warming up cold hands, of nights and days spent crouching in somber alleyways; but his mind didn't linger in those darker days for long, and soon drifted off toward

He thought of his gap-toothed smile that spread from cheek to cheek, of the way he'd cross his arms behind his back and swing on the balls of his feet whenever he was excited about something; he thought of his bright blue eyes and how beautiful they were, of his voice calling out his name, or whispering it, or simply saying it out loud. The sound of Sasuke's name on his tounge was like a perfect symphony, one he'd never tire of listening to. How often did Sasuke wish he could hear his own name on the boy's mouth one more time.

"Sa-su-ke!"

In a cruel twist of irony, the sound of his own name being called startled him, and he turned around to find Karin at the side of his bed, staring at him with a curious expression. Sasuke hadn't heard her come in and felt suddenly unnerved by her presence; Karin had a way of always making people feel like they were being studied. Anyone felt like a test subject or a lab sample in her eyes.

The redhead raised a questioning eyebrow to Sasuke, who resorted to clearing his throat and leaning his back against the propped up pillow.

"Watcha smilin' about, eh?" Karin grinned obnoxiously (well, obnoxiously to Sasuke at least), "were you thinking about me?"

Sasuke never yielded to Karin's incessant teasing, which only ellicited her to amp up her game with him. He was so deadpan in his behavior that it just itched her to push his buttons, but after a while she'd get bored of no reactions and moved on to easier targets. For once Sasuke dreaded that Suigetsu wasn't around to entertain her, the kid was point blank when it came to Karin's teasing.

Karin tilted her head and gave Sasuke one of her sharp-toothed smiles.

"Aren't you glad I came to visit you today?"

"You come to visit me every day" Sasuke impassively declared. His dryness was so characteristic Karin couldn't help but chuckle; everything about Sasuke entertained her thoroughly and she found him fascinating like no other.

Karin took her usual seat by Sasuke's bed.

"Any doctors come visit you yet?"

"As they often do" Sasuke mumbled. He'd turned away from Karin and was back to staring out the window. In the time she'd known him Karin had gotten more used to seeing the back of Sasuke's head than she did his beautiful face.

"Have you talked to any therapists yet?"

"They're usually the ones who do the talking."

Karin furrowed her brow but shot him a smile.

"Sasuke-kun, it's you who's supposed to talk and they're supposed to listen, not the other way around!". She was only half-teasing this time: using her family's influences to get him the best doctors and therapists money could buy, Karin had gone to great lenghts to assure Sasuke's safe and succesful recovery, and he had made just about every effort under the sun to foil her plans. The therapists and doctors were sworn to confidentiality, but they'd all relayed to her the very same story: Sasuke was uncooperative, unresponsive and oftentimes hostile when urged to engage in conversation.

Karin was being gentle with Sasuke for now, but her patience was a limited resource and she'd hesitated for a very long time to remind him of why he was there and who exactly had taken him off the streets, given him shelter, got him a job, saved his life when he tried to kill himself with her pills. Got him admitted to the best hospital with the best doctors. The very least she expected from him was any form of "thank you".

The heiress sighed and pushed up her glasses.

"Sasuke-kun, there's something I need to discuss with you and I'd appreciate it if you could engage me while we speak."

  
The raven-haired boy continued to stare out the window, pretending not to have heard her. Karin frowned and shifted her tone from the playful one she often adopted with him to a more annoyed, stern one.

"Earth to Sasuke Uchiha, I'm talking to you!"

"How did you get my last name?!" The hostility in his voice sent a cold shiver down Karin's spine. A moment ago he hadn't even graced her with a sideway glance, but the feeling of his dark eyes pinned on her bristled the hairs on her neck, making her wish for once that he wasn't looking at her right now. He hadn't yelled, so she wasn't certain if any nurses had heard them in the hallway, but for safe measure Karin gripped the swiss army knife she always carried in the back pocket of her shorts.

"It was on your file, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I don't want you snooping in on my business, Karin" he spat out his words like poison. In the worst of his moods she'd never once seen him act like this, at least not in the year and a half she'd known him.

"I won't, now will you please let me speak now?" wanting to sound assertive and domineering over his little temper tantrum, instead her demand came out like a whiny plea. His mean streak seemed to be over, though, since he just turned away from her and crossed his arms like a child being scolded.

Karin regained her composture and continued.

"I know you've been through some difficult stuff lately, but I'm gonna have to ask you to please stop sabotaging my attempts to help you, Sasuke. Everyone here is doing their best for you to recover, and they'd be thankful,-I'd be thankful-, if you could please put in at least a bit of effort into your own recovery."

Silence.

"That means you're gonna have to start speaking to the therapists that come here to talk to you, alright? You don't have to tell them anything you don't want to and they won't force you to, but at least tell them something. Talk to them about the weather, the birds, anything. At all. Please."

Dead silence.

  
"And for the love of God, stop being an asshole to the doctors and nurses here. This is my family's hospital, I'm putting my reputation on the line for you, and it's not an invitation to be such a grade-A cunt to everyone you encounter." Karin didn't want to be too hard on someone who had tried to kill themselves only a week ago, but she'd been bottling this up for a while and it felt good to finally be able to let it out. And Sasuke didn't seem eager to protest, either.

"And I'd sort of maybe appreciate it if you at least pretended to be nice to me when I came to visit you? Finals week is approaching and I'm putting off a lot of study time and cutting classes just to come see you, and I know that's not your fault and you didn't ask for it, but even if you don't give a shit I kind of do give a shit about you, Sasuke. I know you don't really like me and I don't even know why I'm doing this, and not to toot my own horn or anything but I kinda saved your life, so, you know."

That might've taken it a step too far. Karin bit her lip and silently cursed herself for saying it out loud.

_Dammit, dammit, dammit!_ She hadn't wanted to sound like such a self-righteous bitch.

Sasuke still sat in silence. He'd been staring out the window like she'd never been there at all. Karin sighed and rubbed her temples, frustrated and mentally exhausted.

"Look, I- I'm sorry, that was out of line, I shouldn't have said that. I apologize."

_Sigh._

"No, you're right, I am being a 'grade-A cunt', as you gracefully put it.". Karin looked up at Sasuke, still looking away from her, but he was actually gracing her with a reply now, albeit in his characterisically flat tone.

"I..." Karin was too shaken up for proper words.

"I do appreciate everything you've done for me so far. I'll try to be more cooperative with you from now on. I apologize if I've caused you any trouble, it won't happen again." Sasuke could've just as much been reading the instructions from a dishwasher manual as he was apologizing to her now, but it was the first time Karin had ever heard him apologize to anyone.

Eyebrows raised and blinking her eyes in succession, she cleared her throat and nodded, even though she knew Sasuke couldn't see her.

"T-thank you, Sasuke..." was all she could muster up.

"Once I'm released from the hospital I won't bother you again."

Karin had to take a pause to process what she'd just heard.

"W-what? Don't say such things, Sasuke-kun!" she stuttered through her words, desperately trying to fix the mess she knew she'd just gotten herself into, "I didn't mean anything like that when I ranted at you, you're welcome to stay at any of my family's properties upon your release, I was just..."

"But I've been troublesome to you, Karin. You're right: you did save my life. I don't want to be a burden on you." Sasuke's words were elocuent and didn't have a semblance of sarcasm or irony in them, yet the thought of having made Sasuke feel in any shape or form like a burden to her sent Karin spiraling into anxiety.

"Please don't say that, I'm sorry if I made you feel troublesome to me, you're not! I promise you, Sasuke-kun, you're not troublesome at all! Please, I-" Karin was on the verge of tears now. Her hands were shaking and her lower lip was trembling and she tried to focus on her breathing like her therapist often told her to.

Sasuke heard the tears in her voice but didn't turn to meet her eyes in an effort not to make her uncomfortable. He himself hated it when people saw him cry.

"Alright, alright, I'll continue to bother you even after my release."

Karen sniffled and used her sleeve to quickly dry the tears swelling up her eyes.

"Do you promise?" she asked with a smile. Sasuke's eyes rolled so far into the back of his skull he almost went blind.

"Yeah, I promise." Despite sounding as monotone as ever, the tiniest smile drew on his lips. Even if his coldness and aversion to touch gave him an antisocial vibe, Sasuke didn't find joy in hurting others or purposefully making them feel bad. He was enormously thankful to Karin for everything she'd done for him, even if he didn't have the guts to show it outwardly.

Karin got up to turn off the radio. On a whim, she poked her head out the door hallway and couldn't help but notice two familiar figures at the end of the hallway. She recognized them from the private eye's files: the tall blonde with messy hair, and the pink-haired cutie standing right next to him, talking to a nurse.

Of course she'd had them investigated: Karin wasn't going to risk contacting any lunatic just because Sasuke had named them, for all she knew they could be tied to his criminal past and bring her heaps of trouble. It barely took two phone calls and a coffee meeting to get every piece of intel she could get her hands on about them. Once Karin deemed them safe, she contacted Sakura Haruno to let her know about Sasuke's whereabouts.

A devilish grin drew on her face.

"Oh, by the way Sasuke..."

"Hm?" was all the raven-haired boy could muster up in reply.

"I think you've got visitors today", Karin's smile only expanded with each word, "and I think you'll be quite pleased to have them, for a change."

"I promise I'll be friendly to whatever new doctor you've got in store for me, Karin" Sasuke sighed defeatedly. He was -not- in the mood to play nice that day, but he'd already committed to making an effort for Karin.

"Oh no, no, no, it's no doctor at all this time." Karin could barely contain her excitement when she saw the nurse guide the new visitors down the hallway, "in fact, I think this'll quite brighten up your day for a change, Sa-su-ke-kun!" was all Karin could say before stepping out into the hallway to intercept the nurse and her visitors. Sasuke noticed the change in her demeanor, but she was long gone into the hallway before he could turn to ask.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'll take them from here, Susan" Karin shot a charming smile and wink to the mousey nurse guiding Naruto and Sakura towards' Sasuke's room. The so-called Susan widended her eyes in surprise and immediately stuttered.

"M-Miss Karin! I-" she instinctively bowed, much to Sakura and Naruto's amusement. Karin snorted audibly.

"There's no need to be so formal! I'm not royalty" she gave the starstruck nurse a playful wink, which Sakura found rather cute. The redhead patted the nurse's shoulder and dismissed her, but not before the nurse showered her in a plethora of compliments and promptly walked away, clipboard clutched in hand.

"Yo, who's this chick supposed to be?" Naruto not-so-subtly whispered to Sakura, "some kinda celebrity or sumthin'?"

Sakura elbowed Naruto with a frown. "Be quiet, you dingus! She can clearly hear you."

Karin was beyond amused with the situation; they were just like she'd pictured. She let out another laugh and leaned against the wall.

"Where are my manners?" she stretched out a hand towards Sakura, who was standing the closest to her, "Karin Jinja, pleased to meet you"

Sakura accepted the handshake and gave Karin a warm smile. "Ah, Karin! Yes, we spoke on the phone. Sakura Haruno, the pleasure's all mine, and this here is-"

"Uzumaki Naruto, I presume?" Karin's eyes gleamed as she raised her eyebrows at the tall blonde, who was growing more and more confused by the second.

"Hold on now, how does she know my name? Who in the hell are you, lady?" Naruto said, raising an eyebrow.

Sakura loudly slapped the side of his arm. "Don't be rude, Naruto! We're visitors here!"

"Geez, sorry!" Naruto rubbed the side of his head and shrugged apologetically. Karin was euphoric: watching these two buffoon around this was the most fun she'd had in weeks!

"Wait...you said your name was Jinja..." Sakura could almost hear the gears turning inside Naruto's brain, "like the name of this hospital! Jinja General Hospital!"

Sakura facepalmed, deeply ashamed. How'd she come to befriend such a doofus?! "You're talking to the heiress of the Jinja family, they're the owners of this hospital and many more across the city!"

Karin winked at Naruto, who "oooh'd" audibly at Sakura's explanation. "Indeed, my family does own this hospital and I myself am on my way to becoming a doctor someday as well."

"I've heard lots about your family, they usually come and host activities at my university" Sakura said to Karin, "I'm a medical student myself, too."

"Ah, how lovely!" Karin said, clapping her palms together. But she already knew that about Sakura, of course, "there's never enough doctors in this world, I say."

Karin and Sakura briefly engaged in a chat about medical matters while Naruto stood in the back, tapping his foot impatiently and rolling his eyes.

"Agh! Enough of this! When do we get to see Sasuke?!" Naruto threw his hands up in the air, frustrated. Sakura chided him yet again but Karin could only smile at the blonde's impatience.

"That's actually what I was here to talk to you two about." Karin suddenly shifted her tone to a more serious, 'professional' one, "I didn't have time to relay much to you on the phone, Miss Haruno, but I am personally acquainted with Sasuke. As you may know, this hospital belongs to my family, and I was the one who personally checked him in after his suicide attempt."

This caught Naruto's attention: Sakura hadn't said anything about suicide on the phone.

"Suicide attempt? He...he tried to kill himself?" this had come as a surprise to Sakura, too. On their phonecall, Karin had only mentioned that Sasuke had been checked into Jinja Hospital after a crisis, but that he was in stable condition and completely safe; there hadn't been any mentions of suicide.

"Yes, I'm afraid so" Karin said, clutching her palms together and taking a deep breath, "I've been keeping an eye on him, aside from all the doctors, nurses and therapists we've had monitoring him since his admission, and he's objectively stable and fully conscious of what happened, but I wanted to relay the news to you before you went in and saw him."

"Thank you very much, Miss Jinja" Sakura bowed and quickly pushed down Naruto's head to make him bow too.

"A-ah, yes! Thank you very much, Miss Ninja!". His slip up with Karin's last name earned him another sharp elbowing, this time in the ribs, "o-ow! That hurt, Sakura-chan!"

Karin's seriousness shifted back to amusement, watching the two friends interact. 'They act like siblings', she thought, and chuckled lightly.

"Please, call me Karin." She gave them both an elocuent smile and gestured toward the door behind her, "If you wanna see him,-and I'm sure you do-, he's in this room. Step on in whenever you're ready."

"Thanks again for everything, uh, Karin" Sakura felt uncomfortable referring to a stranger by their first name, but she felt better complying to Karin's request than sticking to formalities.

"My pleasure. I'll be off now, I've got duties to attend to, but if you need absolutely anything feel free to contact me" she stretched out a business card she produced out of visibly nowhere to Sakura, who gently accepted it and put it away in her pocket.

"And you too, young man" Karin stretched out another one for Naruto, who gave her a puzzled look.

"Young man? You look barely a year older than me!" Naruto said, but he took the card nonetheless and promptly put it away for safekeeping. Sakura was about to discipline Naruto for the bajillionth time that day when Karin laughed and stopped her.

"Don't! Don't beat him, I love this guy, he's hilarious!". Sakura's face was stuck in a deep frown, but Naruto shot Karin one of his signature smiles and a wink.

"Hehe, what can I say? I'm Naruto Uzumaki, believe it!"

Karin smiled. She really liked this odd pair. "I sure do. I'll be seeing you two around. That is, if you plan to keep on visiting Sasuke."

  
"Of course we will" Sakura assured the redhead, "we haven't seen him in ten years, we kind of missed him a lot."

Now it was Karin's turn to be surprised: the private eye had mentioned in their meeting that these two were estranged from Sasuke, but he hadn't been able to explain just why. Karin was used to this: every attempt she'd made to investigate Sasuke's past had been fruitless, and she'd used up her family's contacts in trying to fill in the gaps in his timeline. There wasn't an investigator left in the city who hadn't pried into Sasuke's business and found anything new on him; whatever it is he was hiding, it must've been something truly awful for him to have covered his tracks so carefully.

"What?! You haven't seen him in ten years? Really?!"

Naruto and Sakura exchanged puzzled looks before turning back to Karin.

"Sasuke hasn't told you anything about us?" Naruto (unsuccesfully) tried to conceal the genuine hurt in his voice.

"Well, he hasn't really told me anything about himself ever" the redhead scratched the back of her head and shrugged with resignation, "but when I asked him if he wanted to call someone he named you two, specifically. Nobody else."

"Makes sense" Sakura mumbled, "I guess..."

"Where do you know Sasuke from, Karin?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, it's a funny story, really" she chuckled, "about a year ago I found him living on the streets, the poor sap was barely skin and bones. I took him in, gave him shelter in some old shithole property that belongs to my parents, and sort of started hanging out with him that way."

"And this whole time, he hasn't told you anything about himself?"

"Well..." for the first time, Karin fell silent. She bit her lip and her eyes sort of wandered around the room, "he's a very reserved kind of guy, at least from what I've gathered from him so far. He never really talks in the first place, and whenever anyone tried to ask him about himself or his past, where he came from and stuff, well...he'd just ignore you or get pissed at you if you kept on bugging him."

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment and smiled. "Yep, that's my Sasuke alright."

"I assume you guys are his childhood friends?" Karin said, feigning ignorance and doing a brilliant job at it.

"We are. Konoha born and raised! We've known each other since diapers" Naruto smiled and proudly stuck out his chest like a gladiator.

"Ah, so he's not from the city. Interesting..." the redhead drummed her fingers against her cheek, staring curiously at Naruto. Karin was a great actress when she put her heart and mind to it.

"I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Sasuke's always kept to himself, except with, well..." Sakura rolled her eyes and tilted her head, gesturing towards a grinning Naruto. Karin nodded, understanding.

"Pardon my intrusion, I promise I'll let you off the hook after just this question" Karin took a step forward towards the pair, "why is it that you haven't seen Sasuke in ten years?"

The atmosphere changed instantly. Naruto erased the smile off his face and lowered his head. Sakura answered the question for him.

  
"He ran away when we were twelve years old, something terrible had happened to his family and..." Sakura paused "we...we thought he was dead."

"Oh..." Karin instantly regretted asking, "I'm...terribly sorry, I didn't know."

"It's alright, you couldn't have known if Sasuke didn't tell you." Sakura solemnly smiled at Karin, who's expression had turned gloomy, "don't beat yourself up about it, it's in the past now."

"Yeah, I guess" Karin half-assed a smile and pushed up her glasses, "well, I won't hold you up anymore, feel free to go see Sasuke now." And with that, she was off down the hallway.

Sakura turned to check on Naruto, who was still downtrodden after their conversation with Karin. She placed a hand on his back and leaned in close to him, tucking a few strands of hair behind his ear. "You okay?"

Naruto nodded, unconvincingly.

"Hey, don't get all gloomy on me now. We're finally seeing Sasuke again, remember?" she playfully and gently fist-bumped the side of his arm. Naruto met Sakura's eyes and she gave him a smile that brought back sweet memories of their shared childhood; he'd seen it everytime he'd scrap his knee or fall down from a tree and she had to bandage him up. Even back then she knew she wanted to be a doctor, so she was always carrying a first-aid kit to assist her playmates if (when) they hurt themselves during their adventures.

It warmed his heart a little everytime she'd smile at him like that, made him feel that no matter what, everything was gonna be alright.

Sakura's smile was contagious, and it brought one to Naruto's lips as well. She gently took him by the hand like they were crossing the street when they were kids.

"Ready?"

"Ready!" he nodded enthusiastically, "lead the way!"

They finally walked the remaining steps left to Sasuke's hospital room. Taking a deep breath, Sakura knocked on the door.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LADIES AND GENTLEPEOPLE, THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!

Sasuke hadn't taken his eyes off the window and it took him a few minutes to notice both the silence of the turned off radio and Karin's absence. Not that it bothered him much, he was quite fond of peace and quiet, something that seemed impossible when Karin was present. That girl was kind-hearted, at least towards him, but she also had a knack for driving him insane.

She'd been right in her little rant, though: he hadn't been quite grateful to her for everything she'd done for him. Even if he truly hadn't asked for it.

Sasuke wouldn't have time to brood deep in thought today, as he was distracted by a loud knock on his door.

"Sasuke Uchiha?" a female voice inquired from the other side.

"Come in" Sasuke replied, and turned his head back to that darned window. He heard the door slide open and one...two? Sets of footsteps step into the room.

_Huh_ , he thought, _but I only heard one voice._

Then he turned to see who it was and...

His heart right about stopped the moment their eyes met. They lingered in the entrance of the hospital room, both too awestruck to say or do anything.

  
He was paler than they remembered; from his position on the bed they could tell he'd grown about a foot, and he was shockingly slender. He was in dire need of a haircut, and his eyes had nested deep, dark bags from what they assumed were sleepless nights in the streets. After all these years, the sight of him was breathtaking. Sakura gasped and brought a hand up to her mouth, and Naruto took a step forward as if magnetized by Sasuke's mere presence. Both of their eyes were wet with tears.

"Sasuke...?" Naruto's voice came out like a whisper, but Sasuke had heard him loud and clear in an echo that rippled through his mind. He threw the blankets off of him stood up from his bed. On his feet he was even taller than he looked sitting down and Naruto suddenly felt very, very small.

"Na...Naruto? Is that really you?" Sasuke's voice sounded foreign even to himself, like it wasn't him speaking but somebody else instead. He suddenly felt very lightweight, like the floor was made of clouds, and everything around him felt very far away even if it was within arm's reach. He blinked several times in a row, unsure if he had fallen asleep and this was another one of his lucid dreams. The fear that this wasn't really happening at all, that he'd wake up in a moment and this would all be taken away from him, it swelled up his eyes with bitter tears. He allowed the waterworks to flow freely; after all, if this was a dream, then it posed no issue to cry in front of someone.

But then he felt something heavy weigh down on him, and he realized that two arms were wrapped around him. He noticed, too, that at some point he'd fallen on his knees on the floor, and that the person hugging him was on his knees too, snaking his arms around him and holding on for dear life. Sasuke was so shocked that he could only process stimuli one at a time: he felt the weight of Naruto's arms around him and the warmth of his body next to his, he saw the nest of flashy blonde hair right below his nose, he smelled the scent of him, a scent that had changed with time and yet felt insanely familiar; he tasted the salt of his own tears streaming down his cheeks, and finally, at last, he heard the sound of his own name spoken by the one who'd been living rent-free in his head for the past ten years or so. After waiting for so long, he finally heard that perfect symphony again.

"Sasuke..." Naruto said over and over again as he held the boy tight in his arms and buried his face into his chest. Naruto was crying and you could tell by only listening to him, but to Sasuke it sounded like music, his own name spoken in Naruto's mouth always sounded like music. Sasuke regained enough grip on reality to reciprocate Naruto's hug tenfold: he held onto the blondie for dear life, like he was gonna dissolve in his arms if he dared loosen his grip. Moments later he felt the snaking of another pair of arms around his; and now Sakura's teary voice joined the choir as she, too, proceeded to repeat Sasuke's name over and over while she hugged the both of her best friends on the floor of a hospital room.

They all stayed like that for what felt like hours, months, years. For all they knew they stayed like that, in their improvised three-way hug, for another ten years to make up for lost time. Sasuke kept shutting his eyes in utter disbelief, expecting to wake up in his hospital bed alone or in an alleyway, but no matter how many times he opened and shut his eyes the vision remained stable: he really was there, with Sakura and Naruto, and he wasn't alone and he wasn't dead and this wasn't a dream and _oh my God this really wasn't a dream_ , _this really was happening to him._

Once he'd repeated the ceremonial of blinking like a maniac to make sure he wasn't in some drug-induced hallucination, everything hit Sasuke at once and he cried out and started sobbing.

It'd been ten long, long years since Sasuke Uchiha had allowed himself to cry about anything, and now felt like a great moment to play catch-up.

-

The next few hours were a blur. Naruto and Sakura stayed until visiting hours were over; it was them who did most of the talking, but that was already customary for them in the first place. Sasuke just sat on his bed with a smiled plastered across his face the whole time, listening to Naruto blabber away about anything and Sakura poke him and plead with him to slow down and let Sasuke chime in with a word or two. But Sasuke didn't mind it at all: he could listen to his friends talk about anything and everything, forever and ever.

Sakura took the liberty of putting Sasuke up to date; both her and Naruto had left Konoha to pursue higher education. Their first year in the city they'd shared an apartment, but with Sakura's hectic schedule and Naruto's terrible habits they agreed it was in the best interest of their friendship to move out on their own. Plus, Naruto had walked in on Sakura and Ino's make-out sessions way too many times for his comfort.

They'd wanted to ask Sasuke so many questions, but upon finding out the reason for his hospitalization neither dared tread those waters just yet. They figured Sasuke must've been through enough already, the interrogation could wait a visit or two. All that mattered to them now was that Sasuke was alive, he was okay, and he was right across the street from Naruto's apartment (and a 10-minute walk from Sakura's).

Throughout their visit, Sasuke kept squeezing Naruto's hand tightly from time to time. It'd happened naturally: as soon as they took their seats next to Sasuke's bed, Naruto had mindlessly linked his fingers with Sasuke's and they'd stayed like that for the rest of the visit. Every once in a while, usually at random, Sasuke would squeeze it, or stealthily move a finger to gently caress Naruto's hand while the blondie tried his very worst to pretend he didn't notice. Nothing about this shameless display of love went by unnoticed to Sakura, who did try her very best to feign ignorance and continue the conversation as if nothing had trascended.

Sasuke thought that if his hand were to fuse with Naruto's and they stayed linked like that forever he wouldn't mind it the least bit.

-

Nurses had been coming and going all day long, briefly interrupting the trio's gleeful reunion for routine chekcups and to bring Sasuke's lunch, but when the dreaded nurse stopped by to inform Naruto and Sakura that visiting hours were soon to be over, Sasuke gripped the blondie's hand so tightly Naruto thought it was gonna fall off from lack of blood circulation.

"Please, five more minutes" Sasuke pleaded with the nurse in an uncharacteristically tearful voice, "only five more minutes."

The nurse, who'd only heard Sasuke speak in monosyllables and grunts the whole time he'd been admitted to the hospital, widened her eyes like plates and took a moment to compose herself.

"Alright, five more minutes, but no more" she gently slid the door shut and let them have their privacy. Usually she would've refused the request that was made to hear at least a million times a day by countless friends and relatives of patients, but there were direct orders from Miss Karin that they make an exception for this patient should he request it.

"I've got classes tomorrow, but I'll make sure to stop by if I find a moment of free time. Pinky promise" Sakura held up her left pinky at Sasuke and winked. The raven-haired boy smiled and linked his pinky with Sakura's, lingering in the warmth of her hand.

"I'll call off work tomorrow and come visit you all day long, I promise!" Naruto cheerfully added. Sasuke felt his heart melt like an ice cream cone under the sun.

  
  
"Kakashi sensei's going to fire you if you keep calling off work." Sakura poked Naruto's arm and furrowed her brow at him.

"But it's for a good cause! How many times are we gonna get Sasuke-kun back, huh? I can find another job if I lose it, but I can't find another Sasuke!" the blondie pouted, squeezing the other boy's hand. Sasuke thought if he didn't kiss him right then and there he was gonna go insane.

"Don't make promises you can't keep, you doofus!" Sakura was back to scolding Naruto, who made puppy eyes in an attempt to get some compassion out of her. Alas, Sakura was unfazed: she'd fallen for his tricks before, it wasn't going to work on her this time. Sasuke or no Sasuke, she'd promised Kushina she'd keep an eye on her boy when they moved to the big city.

Sasuke desperately wanted to indulge the selfishness in him and plead with Naruto to come visit him all day, every day forever, because he was utterly terrified that after walking out the door he'd never ever get to see him again and he'd forget about him. He wanted to keep holding Naruto's hand until they grew old and withered away, and he wanted nothing more in this life than to never have to leave Naruto's side ever again for any reason. But he also understood that while he was gone, his friends had gotten around to having lives of their own, and he couldn't realistically expect them to drop everything at the drop of a hat just because he'd showed up again in their lives all of a sudden.

Sasuke put a halt to their bickering by saying: "It's okay, Naruto. I understand. Come visit me after you get off work tomorrow" he smiled at him, and playfully added, "I promise I won't run away again."

"Like hell you will!" Naruto squinted his eyes at Sasuke and shot him a fox-like grin, "cause if you do then I'll have to track you down and kill you!"

Sasuke threw his head back as he burst out into laughter and suddenly found himself being hugged by his two bestest friends in the whole wide world. Naruto nestled his head into Sasuke's neck while Sakura hugged the other side of his body, half-lifting herself from her chair and leaning into Sasuke's shoulder. He placed his arms around both of them and held them tight.

"Please..." he whispered to them, "please don't leave me alone. Please promise me you'll come back."

"I promise" they said in unison, and hugged him tighter. Another nurse had been sent in to inform the trio that time's up, but she'd been too moved by the scene to interrupt it. She allowed them to linger in their three-way hug for another couple of minutes before quietly informing them that visiting hours were over.

"For real, Sas, I promise you I'll be back tomorrow, no matter if it rains, snows or hails!" Naruto whispered to Sasuke before breaking their hug and getting up to leave.

Sasuke held back tears as he separated from his two best friends and they waved him goodbye. After having been cradled in Naruto's warmth all day, Sasuke's hand felt terribly, terribly lonely now.


	5. Chapter 5

That night, Sasuke had a dream: he was twelve years old again and walking alongside a highway, far from any remnants of civilization. He'd been walking for what felt like a very, very long time. The sun was setting in the horizon ahead of him, and the sky was all shades of dark brown and bright orange. He was walking opposite of the oncoming traffic; he'd wanted to hitchhike, but he was far too small to be seen by the speeding cars, so he continued to drag his aching feet ahead in hopes of finding a place to stay the night. 

  
Eventually, the sun went down and he found himself alone in the dark, cars no longer speeding through the highway. He felt much smaller and weaker, only to realize that he was now eight years old. Panicked, he started running in any direction trying to find his way back home, but he felt his backpack getting heavier and heavier with every step forward, until it was too heavy for him to carry. When he turned around to see what was weighing him down with such force, he discovered not his backpack but the corpses of his parents that he was carrying on his shoulders, piled atop of each other and dripping fresh blood. He woke up screaming in cold sweat, the same way he did every time he'd gone to sleep for the past ten years.

  
This would've been great material to discuss with a therapist, but Sasuke was particularly wary of strangers, especially strangers whose sole purpose was to get him to trust them. He'd had less-than-ideal experiences with people like that in the past, and more than enough reasons to distrust everyone and anyone who pried into his business uninvited.

  
Therapists had constantly been in and out of his hospital room for days now, wanting to talk to him and get him to open up about the past. Sasuke simply wouldn't budge: the one thing he least wanted to talk about, especially with a total stranger, was his past. 

  
_They wouldn't understand_ , he thought. _How could they? How could anyone?_

  
He'd make Karin a promise that day: that he would cooperate. But he had no good reason to keep that promise. Even if Karin (rightfully) decided to cut him off and throw him back out on the streets, it made no difference to him. He knew how to take care of himself, it's what he'd been doing the past decade; looking out for himself and making-do with what little he had. It had been that way long before Karin came along and he was sure that sooner than later he'd be back to living on the margins of society. 

  
He wasn't even sure if he was grateful to Karin for saving his life, because as far as he was concerned it was a pretty shitty life to begin with.

  
Sasuke sighed and slammed his body back down on the matress. The nurses had shut the blinds, so he couldn't see the if the moon was out tonight. Annoyed, he got up and pulled them up to get a good look of the night sky; looking up at the stars brought him peace. It was an old habit he kept from his childhood: whenever he was disturbed or his mind was in a dark place,-which was often-, looking up at the night sky always tranquilized him.

  
He placed a hand on the windowframe and took a good look outside: the sky was cloudy so he could see neither the moon nor the stars that night. His hospital room didn't have much of a view: it mostly overlooked terraces, concrete buildings and obnoxious neon signs that contaminated the horizon with their tacky advertisements. One thing Sasuke missed terribly about his hometown was the lack of light pollution that plagued most big cities.

  
Glancing towards a ticking wall clock, he noticed it was half past three. He wanted to pry the hospital window open just a little so he could feel the cool breeze, but they had safety locks in case some lunatic felt like pulling stunts. Especially the rooms with patients on suicide watch, such as his. He sighed.

  
Karin had saved his life, but he was missing a purpose to live it. A certain blondie's gap-toothed smile promptly flashed across his mind, and the words from earlier echoed through his memory.

  
 _For real, Sas, I promise you I'll be back tomorrow, no matter if it rains, snows or hails_!

  
He wished he could carry a tape recorder with him at all times so he'd document everything Naruto said to him. It'd be far more melodic than any music anyone in the world could compose.

  
Sasuke was wrong. Dead wrong: he had plenty of reasons to want to cooperate with Karin. Whether she knew it or not, she'd given him the most valuable thing he could've ever asked for, far more valuable than anything money could buy. Ten lives wouldn't have been enough for him to repay her for such a deed.

-

"I wanted to thank you" was the first thing he said to Karin when she stopped by the next day to check on him.

  
"I'm sorry, could you please say that again? I think my hearing's gone awry" Karin replied, visibly exaggerating her disbelief. This earned her an annoyed grunt from her protegeé, who promptly repeated himself.

  
"I said I wanted to thank you, Karin" he spoke slower this time, emphasizing each word as if he was speaking to a five-year-old. Karin could just barely hold back the shit-eating grin to end all shit-eating grins.

  
"My, my, my, well I'll be damned" she said in a high-pitched, skin-grating voice and putting her hands on her hips, "I'll have to thank those two lovely friends of yours that stopped by yesterday; if you'd just told me they were miracle workers I would've called them sooner!"

  
"Could you not be impossibly smug about this, please? You're almost making me regret it" Sasuke was exasperated, to say the least, but it didn't phase Karin. 

  
"Seems to me like my little plan of action worked" she said, crossing her arms across her chest and sitting down next to him on a humble plastic chair.

  
"I should've known you were behind this" he sighed defeatedly.

  
"Of course I was." Karin winked at him. "Now, tell me all about it! I wanna hear every detail." She waved her hands and bounced up and down like a gossipy schoolgirl. Sasuke wished he had shot himself instead of downing pills.

  
"Nothing much" he said nonchalantly, "they stayed until visiting hours were over, we caught up, they promised they'd come to visit me today. That's it."

  
"Oh _bullshit_ , Sasuke-kun" Karin uttered, visibly frowning. "'Nothing much', he says. You think I'm gonna believe that shit? Don't think your friends spared me the deets about yesterday's ten-year Konoha reunion, now spill the beans!"

  
Sasuke needed a moment to compose himself. While the prospect of Karin having found out about his past made him uneasy and pissed him off, he was in no bargaining position. He felt beyond indebted to her now. If knowing where he was from or his last name or who his friends were was the price to pay for it, then it was a small one compared to spending the rest of his life with Naruto. 

  
_Alright_ , he thought, _I'll spill._

  
"Fine. We spent hours talking, they put me up to date with their lives, I-uh..." he abruptly paused. He wasn't comfortable telling Karin about his little hand-holding sesh with Naruto, nor he was comfortable telling her about his attraction to Naruto at all. He struggled with whether his unpayable debt to her meant that he should serve as an open book to satisfy her sadistic need to know everything there is to know about him.

  
While he debated himself internally, Karin studied him carefully with those ever-watchful eyes of hers. She'd done her fair share of Sasuke-watching in the last year, and she'd come to the conclusion that Sasuke was always brooding and ellaborating and thinking quite a lot for a guy who barely spoke. Her most recurring daydream was prying Sasuke's skull open with a scalpel and taking a good look at the contents of his brain. 

  
Her therapist had plenty to say about such an interesting daydream.

  
"Is it some kind of secret you can't tell me?" Karin teased. Sasuke furrowed his brow. _Think fast, you moron!_

  
"No, of course not. I'm just, uh, not good with words. Sorry" he said bluntly. This was the first time he'd had such a long conversation with Karin; he wished it for it to be over already. Mindlessly, he glanced at the clock on the opposite wall, a gesture that Karin couldn't overlook.

  
"Are you anxious for Uzumaki-san to get here, Sasuke-kun?" Karin grinned at Sasuke, who averted his gaze to avoid her hawk-like eyes. Thankfully, she turned them back to the wall clock. "Visiting hours are just about to start. Is he coming over now or does he have things to attend to first?"

  
"He's working right now. Said he'll come over later." Sasuke mumbled. Karin found it beyond amusing that she was actually able to have a conversation with the shut-in for once; she made a mental note to thank the blondie if she ran into him later.

  
"What about Sakura-san? Are you eager to see her as well?"

  
"I-" before he could continue, they were interrupted by a loud knock on the door. No, a loud banging would be a better fit for it.. Karin groaned and got up towards the door to see what the fuss was all about. 

  
Sliding the door open, she found herself face-to-face,-or rather, face to chest-, with a familiarly tall, fox-like blonde. Even when Karin furrowed her brow at him, Naruto giggled from ear to ear and scratched the back of his head the way he always did when someone frowned at him for making a ruckus.

  
"I'll have you know this is a HOSPITAL, Uzumaki-san, and that a regular old knock on the door would have sufficed." she scolded, before gesturing for him to come in. Naruto stepped in, mumbling an apology, and his face lit up the moment his eyes met Sasuke's, who'd never been so happy to have been interrupted before.

  
"N-Naruto? What are you doing here?". Karin had to do a double-take, because that voice that'd just spoken was so vivid and full of joy it couldn't have belonged to Sasuke. 

  
"Sasuke-kun!" Naruto cheerfully greeted him, but before he could take another step forward Karin stretched out her arm to intercept him; placing her other hand on Naruto's shoulder, she looked up at him and said:

  
"Uzumaki-san, may I have a word with you? _In private?_ " the way she said it was more of an order than a question, slightly squinting her eyes and giving him her best 'professional' smile, which was better translated into a 'I-wish-I-wasn't-dealing-with-you-right-now" smile. Naruto gulped. 

  
Sasuke, who had been on his very best behavior that day, looked like he was just about ready to skin Karin alive with his bare hands for costing him very precious time alone with Naruto. Karin noticed this but couldn't have cared any less; as she shuffled herself and the blondie out into the hallway she shot Sasuke a warning glare, to which he replied with a murderous one. 

  
-

  
"Is it because of all the noise I made? I'm very sorry, Miss Jinja, I promise I- I won't do it again" Naruto was quick to bow and stutter an apology to the heiress the moment they were outside the room. Karin put up her palm signalling him to stop.

  
"It's not about that, I need to ask you a favor." 

Naruto tilted his head and raised a confused eyebrow. "Huh, _me_?".

  
"Yes, _you_ " Karin mimicked Naruto's tone, "I don't know what kind of relationship you have with Sasuke and I don't really care, but since you clearly seem to have so much influence on him I eagerly need you to play for my team."

  
Part of that statement was a lie: she was very much interested in knowing what kind of relationship Naruto had with Sasuke that triggered such an overnight change in him. But she wasn't about to let him in on that. 

  
Naruto was still very confused. 

  
"Sorry, I don't think I follow..." he laughed nervously. This Karin chick gave him the heebie jeebies; whenever he was around her he felt like he was being studied, and he knew it wasn't because she was a medical student or whatever. Sakura was a medical student herself and she wasn't constantly looking at him like he was a lab rat.

  
"I need you to convince Sasuke to start cooperating with the therapists I send him. I think we both could agree it's in his best interest: the faster he makes progress, the sooner he'll be out of here." Karin pulled up the side of her glasses and gave Naruto a piercing glare that sent goosebumps down his neck. She'd seemed so nice and friendly yesterday, but right now she was bossy and intimidating and he wished she'd stop looking at him like she was about to dissect him.

  
"I-um, sure!" Naruto tried to diffuse the situation by giving her a smile, "sure, I'll talk to Sasuke."

  
"Good. I'm glad we're both on the same page." Judging from the tone of her voice, Naruto thought being on the same page with Karin was anyone's safest bet. 

  
"Oh! Before I forget" she chirped, suddenly shifting her tone "I also wanted to thank you."

  
"You're welcome!" he grinned cheek to cheek before Karin's words quite set in their meaning, which then prompted him to ask: "Wait, what for?"

  
"Sasuke's mood has visibly improved ever since yesterday's visit." Karin explained matter-of-factly, "and I have reasons to believe it's because of you. So, I wanted to thank you for that."

  
"No problem, I'll come visit him as much as I can." Naruto put up his thumb at Karin, sealing his promise. Karin nodded understandingly. She slid the room's door open and poked her head in. "Sasuke-kun, I'll be going now." she said and, turning to Naruto, added, "He's all yours now." 

  
And with that, once again, she was gone. Even if their exchanged ended on a much lighter note, when Naruto stepped back into the room and slid the door behind him he still had a lowkey terrified expression plastered all over his face.

  
Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle. "First time meeting Karin, I see."

  
"I actually met her yesterday, but she wasn't as scary as she was today!" Naruto complained, sliding the chair closer next to Sasuke's bed. Sasuke instinctively went for Naruto's hand the moment he sat down, and Naruto mindlessly reciprocated.

  
"What did she want to talk to you about?"

  
"Oh, um, I dunno if I should tell you." Naruto replied in earnest; Karin hadn't specified if their little 'arrangement' should be kept from Sasuke or not.

  
"Already keeping secrets from me?" Sasuke teased, trying not to give away how pissed he was that Karin was already meddling in his business with Naruto.

  
"Fiiine, I guess I'm allowed to tell you. She asked me if I could convince you to open up with the therapists. Oh, and she thanked me for changing your mood for the better."

  
"Oh" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "well, that's not as bad as I thought."

  
"Does she typically threaten people to get what she wants?" Naruto asked, having shifted his attention to tangling his fingers with Sasuke's. The raven-haired stud had long, slender fingers that felt silky smooth against Naruto's rough, calloused ones. Sasuke was also distracted by the stealthy tango of their knuckles bumping into each other.

  
"Yeah" he mumbled, "but you get used to it after a while...". 

  
Naruto chuckled and, fully invested in the warmth of Sasuke's hand, quickly forgot all about his creepy encounter with Karin. 

  
"I thought you said you had work today" Sasuke said, giving him a concerned look, "please don't tell me you quit your job." 

  
"That's mean, Sasuke-kun!" the blondie pouted, trying to sound as offended as possible, "I'm dumb, not stupid: I asked Kiba to cover my shift, but now I owe him one."

  
"Kiba's your coworker, I presume?" Sasuke asked, gently squeezing Naruto's hand. 

  
"Yeah; we're classmates, too. I thought I mentioned that yesterday, though" Naruto squinted his eyes at Sasuke and huffed, "you weren't even listening to me!"

  
"I'm sorry, I was just lost in your eyes". _Smooth, Sasuke, real smooth._ He even topped it off with a charming wink. Naruto felt the blood rushing to his cheeks and turned his head away.

  
"D-don't say embarassing stuff like that!" he blurted out, a couple of decibels louder than originally intended. Sasuke tried to hold back his laughter, but seeing Naruto act so flushed at such an obvious compliment was hilarious and he couldn't help but giggle. Naruto thought that Sasuke's laughter was melodic.

  
"P-plus" Naruto continued, "I'm not the one who kept squeezing my hand all day long yesterday!". It wasn't a complaint, but he needed some leverage against him; it'd been a lifetime since they'd teased each other like this, and he was enjoying it.

  
Sasuke was in on Naruto's game. He tilted his head, giving him a wicked grin; he knew just what to bounce back with.

  
"Oh? Well, I'm not the one who held my hand in the first place." After all these years, he hadn't lost his edge. Picking up their playful rivalry where they'd left it off felt good.

  
"Alright, you got me there." Naruto sighed, sinking back into his chair but still holding his grip on Sasuke's tender hand.

  
"Giving up so soon? I had you for a better rival." Sasuke gloated.

  
"Nah, you're just too snappy and I'm rusty for comebacks" he said, gently squeezing the boy's hand and immediatley crashing down his defenses. 

_Fuck_ , he thought, _be cool._

  
'Cool' was everything Sasuke was not right now. He internally cursed his pale complexion for giving away his blushing.

  
For a moment, neither of them said anything. Sasuke defaulted back to his usual viewing spot,-the window-, whereas Naruto's eyes just scanned the room and fixated on minor details. They didn't look at each other, but they didn't need to: everything that needed to be said could be said without words.

  
_I want to ask you a question._

  
"Yo, Sasuke" the boy snapped out of his momentary trance at the sound of his name and turned to the blondie; Naruto's voice had an effect on him like a whistle for dogs.

  
"Yeah?"

  
"Why'd you keep squeezing my hand all day long yesterday?".

_Thump thump. Thump thump._

The cheeky bastard hadn't even dared to look him in the eye when he spat out the question. Sasuke stared at him dumbfounded, feeling his heart speed up like a herd of wild horses.

  
"I'm-I'm not complaining at all! It's just..." he gulped "I was just curious, and uh, I thought I might ask ya."

  
His gaze was still wandering aimlessly around the room, pretending to fixate on minor details that couldn't have mattered any less to him if he tried. And yet, Sasuke silently thanked him for turning those gorgeous eyes of him away. Because if Naruto had put his big, blue ocean eyes on him and asked him such an obscene question, he would've come undone like a dandelion in a gust of wind. 

  
Sasuke paused before answering; not because he needed to think of an answer, but because he'd only just realized that he'd stopped breathing.

  
_Because I'm in love with you._

  
"Because..." his voice was shaky. And then Naruto really did turn his big blue ocean eyes on him and they were piercing and they were beautiful and Sasuke felt like he could get lost in them forever and _oh God he's waiting for you to say something you idiot, say something!_

  
"Because I was scared that you'd leave." he said, feeling his eyes swell with tears, "I was scared that you'd leave and you'd never come back and I'd never see you again, so I kept squeezing your hand to assure myself that this was real and I wasn't dreaming."


	6. Chapter 6

He hadn't wanted to say so much, it just poured out of him. His breathing was agitated and he felt like puking his heart out, and it was all in open display of Naruto's beautiful eyes pinned on him. Sasuke felt his world come to a standstill. 

  
Everything up until Naruto's return had felt like a drawn-out, feverish dream, one he couldn't wake up from; and for longer than he could remember it felt like he and Naruto were the only people left in this world, and everybody else was simply a mirage, a ghost, an ellaborate figment of his imagination. Nothing felt real to Sasuke, not even himself. In the back of his mind, he kept expecting at any time to wake up in cold sweat, alone once again. It was a dreadful and constant thought that loomed over him like a dark cloud.

  
Naruto's head was spinning and his heart was a raging steamhammer; he inhaled sharply and felt his cheeks flush a dark shade of red. Time had stopped for him now; all that was and all that would be could only exist right here, right now, between these four walls and with Sasuke at arms' length from where he was sitting.

  
Sasuke blinked, a few tears rolling down his cheeks. "I'm sorry... that was too sudden, I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." 

  
"No, no, I..." Naruto stopped himself in the middle of his sentence. 

_This doesn't feel real._

  
Awkward silence set in. Sasuke could physically feel time moving forward with each passing second, until Naruto's voice broke him out of that trance for the second time today.

"I'm actually glad you said that." And with those magical words, he squeezed Sasuke's hand harder than ever before and leaned forward. 

-

When their lips met, it felt like lightning. It felt like rainstorms and earthquakes and fireworks; it felt like waves crashing and volcanoes erupting, like the world had been standing still for all of ten years and everything came back to life simultaneously. Everything was moving too fast, the lights were suddenly too bright, his senses were too sharp. 

  
Sasuke was overwhelmed; the waterworks now flowed freely, dampening his cheeks. He gasped against Naruto's lips and tugged at the boy's orange hoodie, seeking to bridge the gap between their bodies. He felt Naruto smile into their kiss and cupped his cheek with his other hand, kissing him deeper and harder.

  
Their lips parted briefly; Naruto's breath felt warm against Sasuke's dry skin. The blondie trailed small kisses across Sasuke's cheek, only stopping to dry his tears with his thumb. Looking into his eyes, Naruto's heart skipped a beat at just how beautiful they were. Sasuke gently caressed the other boy's cheek with his slender fingers, marvelled at how much softer Naruto's skin was than he remembered. Their gazes were intertwined in such a way that the world could've ended right then and there and it wouldn't have made any difference to them, for they inhabited their very own, secret, private world.

  
They kissed for what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes at best. It was as rough as it was tender, and Sasuke would later joke how Naruto tasted like ramen and mint bubblegum; but it was their kiss that they'd shared, a precious memento of their long-expected reunion.

  
It'd been the second kiss they'd shared so far.

-

  
Kakashi, thankfully, hadn't given him shit for skipping work in the morning, nor did he ask any questions, but Kiba hadn't let him catch a break for making him work on his day off. "Alright, I'll cover your lazy blonde ass this time," he'd relented, crabby as ever, "but you owe me one, dude."

  
That evening, after the infamous hospital visit, they sat next to each other during their lecture as they usually did. Naruto was usually a sunlight-powered chatterbox before, during and after class, but today he was remarkably quiet. Kiba eyed him suspiciously.

  
"This boy, Sasuke, uh-" he paused, measuring his words before finally spitting them out, "is he your boyfriend or sumthin'?"

  
"N-NO!" Naruto squealed, "h-he's just a long lost friend. I haven't seen him in a while."

  
"'Ten years' isn't exactly what I'd call 'a while' but suit yourself, bro." Kiba taunted him wickedly: Naruto had given him the story once or twice, usually when they went out drinking and he was too uninhibited to care for his words. 

  
Naruto's cheeks turned red, signaling Kiba that he'd hit it square on the money. "S-Shut up! You know what I meant, dumbass." 

  
"You're stuttering an awful lot for someone who's supposedly not super into this dude. C'mon, spit it out: how long have you been together or like, into each other?". Kiba's torture didn't quite end there: leaning in closer to the blondie with a mischiveous grin, he whispered: "Did you have sex with him yet?"

  
Naruto buried his face in his arms and groaned, much to Kiba's audible amusement. The scrawny brunette's laughter roared through the classroom, causing several students to turn around or glare at him. Iruka looked just about ready to taxidermy them for interrupting his lecture.

  
"If I have to remind you once more that you're in a classroom and not a social club, Mr. Inuzuka, I'll make sure to walk you on a leash around campus every day for the rest of the semester. Do I make myself clear?"

  
The classroom erupted in laughter. Kiba, embarassed, shrunk himself in his seat and quietly nodded. Naruto glanced at him and smirked.

  
"You're always making a ruckus." he whispered, not wanting to become Iruka's next target.

  
"You're one to talk, Uzumaki." Kiba retorted under his breath. The rest of the lecture he dedicated himself to taking notes and paying attention, but Naruto's mind had been scrambled since the kiss with Sasuke and he was unable to concentrate on anything but the simplest, most basic tasks required for existing. He'd borrow Kiba's notes later if he needed to.

His mood hadn't flown under Iruka's radar, who intercepted him right before he walked out of the classroom and signalled for him to come over.

  
"You're acting weird today." Iruka said, moving around a few papers on his desk, "Something on your mind?"

  
"Not much." Naruto stood a few feet away from his professor, digging his hands in his pockets and awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to another. 

  
"Kakashi told me you went to visit a friend at the hospital. Is everything alright?" Iruka fiddled with a pen but kept his eyes fixed on the crestfallen blondie, who was suspiciously avoiding meeting his gaze.

  
"Yeah, everything's fine, I'm just a bit tired, that's all" he muttered. 

  
"I don't need x-ray vision to see through your obvious bullshit, Naruto." Iruka raised Naruto an accusing eyebrow. Naruto swallowed, knowing Iruka had caught his bluff. He sighed and leaned against the professor's desk.

  
"It's more than that, sensei; he's a friend from my hometown, he'd gone missing around ten years ago and all of a sudden I'm getting a call from Sakura in the middle of the night and they've found him and he's in the hospital because he tried to kill himself." He spat it all out without even stopping to breathe. Iruka signalled him to slow down and take deep breaths.

  
"Calm down. What scares you so much?"

  
"It's just, I-" his voice cracked and he felt his throat burn with oncoming tears. He turned his face away from Iruka's, but even out of sight his voice was still watery and his breathing was audibly agitated. 

  
Naruto couldn't tell how or when he'd ended up crying on Iruka-sensei's shoulder, but next thing he knew he was openly sobbing and blabbering incoherently, probably about Sasuke. 

  
-

  
"And that's basically what happened." 

  
Naruto slurped down the remaining miso on his bowl like a vacuum. Iruka quietly stared at him, having barely touched the contents of his own bowl. He'd been entranced by Naruto's tale for the past five minutes, far too invested to even take a bite. 

  
"So, you're telling me... you just kissed him and left?"

  
"It wasn't like that, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto screeched, before lowering his head in shame, "after we finished kissing he didn't say anything, and neither did I, because, well, I didn't know what to say! And when the nurse came over to check on him I took that as my chance to leave. I just sort of awkwardly said goodbye and bolted."

  
"You _ran away_ , that's what you did." Iruka chided him. Even if he was fond of Naruto Uzumaki, he wasn't gonna let him get away with any bullshit; giving him a shoulder to cry on and taking him out to their favorite ramen shop to soothe him wasn't an open invitation to enable his bad behavior. 

  
Naruto pouted. "You're right, Iruka-sensei. I'm a coward!" he threw his hands up in the air, "I ran away and now I don't know what to do." 

  
He buried his face into his hands desperately, wishing he could turn back time or disappear, or both. Iruka was sort of cross with Naruto for acting so insensitively towards a friend, but he couldn't help chuckling at how flustered he was reacting to the situation.

  
"Alright, Naruto, calm down, I didn't mean it like that" he comforted him, placing a hand on the boy's back and soothing him, "but I do think you owe him an apology. Sasuke's in a really vulnerable place right now, I don't think it's a safe call to be playing mind games with him."

  
"What if he hates me now?" the blondie turned to Iruka with teary eyes, "I'd never forgive myself."

  
"Well..." Iruka stroked his chin thoughtfully, "I don't know Sasuke-kun, so take this with a grain of salt, but from what I gather it seems like he's quite fond of you, Naruto."

"You really think so?" he beamed with hope, as if Iruka's words were bound to be true. Iruka smirked at him and nodded.

  
"Uh-huh. From what you've told me he was really happy to see you when you went to visit him, and it was him who held your hand first today, not you."

  
"Hm.." Naruto pondered Iruka's words, thoughtlessly circling a finger on his empty ramen bowl. 

  
"Look, Naruto," Iruka's tone turned solemn, the same tone he used whenever he was teaching or giving a lecture, "I can tell you're really into Sasuke, else you wouldn't have kissed him in the first place. And I can tell you guys had a special bond even before he went missing all those years ago, so, I highly doubt this has enough strength to singlehandedly ruin it."

  
Iruka gave Naruto a kind smile; he knew his student was a good, kind-hearted kid that only needed a little discipline every once in a while. Although he admitted this to no-one, Iruka saw a lot of himself in the young Uzumaki; he, too, had been the same bright-eyed, enthusiastic, over-the-top kid living far from home in a strange city. As he grew older, he retrospectively wished someone had looked out for him when he was young and vulnerable, so when he met Naruto he took it upon himself to look out for the kid. It was rather fulfilling: a single, childless professor taking a reckless college student under his wing was the closest he'd ever come to parenthood.

  
"But even so, you should still go up there tomorrow and apologize and commit to never doing that again." he added, finishing his lecture. Naruto nodded, thoughtfully, and not-so-discreetly eyed Iruka's unfinished ramen bowl.

  
"So, uh, are you gonna finish that bowl of ramen, sensei?"

  
Iruka cackled: some things would never change.


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto knew he should've gone straight to the hospital the very next day to set things straight with Sasuke, but he was too chickenshit to make the two-minute walk from his first-floor apartment to the hospital doors across the street. More specifically: everytime he attempted to, he'd halt right at the entrance, walk all the way back across the street and lock himself inside his apartment, where he'd gracefully kill time by having panic attacks. He was too dysfunctional to go to class and barely, just barely, made it through his work shifts at the vet clinic. Even Kakashi took pity on him by sending him home early when he found him crying in the bathroom during his break. The rest of the time, he zombied around the house in days-old pajamas, too depressed to take a shower or eat a proper meal.

  
Iruka's words (and ramen) had made him feel better, but he was still a ball of anxiety and his mind kept him up at night with racing, panic-inducing thoughts. What he'd done to Sasuke had truly been cowardly, and an even darker thought haunted his mind like a ghost:

  
_What if this pushes him over the edge? What if he tries to kill himself again because he thinks I've abandoned him?_

  
This thought urged him to set the record straight once and for all by just owning up to his mistake; _just go over there and apologize to him. It's not that hard._

  
Another (conflicting) thought made his heart speed up with dread and panic: _he'll never forgive you now. The longer you wait, the more he'll hate you. It's too late to set things straight now: you've ruined it. You ruined everything._

  
This ping-pong was the only thing his mind had room for whenever he was awake. When he tried to sleep, he'd be attacked with nightmares upon nightmares he'd wake up screaming from. It felt like Sasuke' disappearance all over again.

The possibility that when he _did_ muster up the courage to cross the street and go see Sasuke he'd be met with the news of his death was devastating. It made him both want to make amends and run away.

  
-

  
The anxiety circus ended after three days, with a text from Sakura:

  
_"We need to talk. Call me."_

  
Naruto gave his phone screen a dead-eyed stare. _Great, that's exactly what I need right now:_ _**two** best friends being mad at me._ But he knew he'd kind of done this to himself: he hadn't even told Sakura about what'd happened with Sasuke that day at the hospital.

  
The phone only had time to ring once before Sakura picked it up.

  
"What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?"

  
"Hello to you too, Sakura-chan." Naruto said sarcastically.

  
"You sound like shit. I think I can guess why." Her voice sounded cross; she definitely knew something was up.   
"I do feel like shit, thanks for asking." He rubbed his tired eyes and yawned. "What did you want to talk about?"

  
"You haven't been to the hospital in a couple of days, that's quite odd."

  
"I've been busy." Naruto tried to play it off as genuine, but Sakura knew better.

  
"Hey, uh, Naruto, do you smell...something?" her tone of voice suddenly shifted to a more upbeat, casual one.

Naruto, who was too sleep-deprived to see through this obvious bait, fell for it hook, line and sinker.

  
"Uh, smell what?" he looked around him, confused, "where are you right now, wha-?"

  
"Yeah, that, that smell, y'know?" she audibly made a sniffing sound. Naruto thought the lack of sleep was making him have auditory hallucinations but still played along.

  
"Um, no, I don't smell anything. Why?"

  
"I smell BULLSHIT! And it's coming from YOU!" Sakura yelled through the phone, deafening Naruto's right ear. He blinked a couple of times and let out a long sigh.

  
"Good one, I can't believe I fell for that." he admitted, drawing a tiny smile on his face.

  
"Goddammit Naruto, I love you but..." she sighed, agitated, "sometimes you're just so irredeemably stupid."  
"I'm sorry, okay?" he muttered apologetically.

  
"Spare me that apology and save it for Sasuke, okay?"

  
"So he _did_ tell you." Naruto sighed with relief. This means he's still alive. Thank goodness.

  
Sakura caught on. "You sound awfully relieved for someone who fucked up this badly."

  
"I thought my mistake had cost me Sasuke's life."

  
Although Naruto couldn't see it, Sakura blinked repeatedly before snickering audibly.

  
"Oh my God, you thought Sasuke had killed himself because you were too chickenshit to fix your own fuck-up?"

  
"Why are you laughing? It's not funny." Naruto said, genuinely pissed off at Sakura's reaction. 

  
"I don't think it is, what I do think is hilarious is just how dramatic your imagination can be sometimes instead of just, I don't know, doing something about it. You could've called me, or any of your friends; if you were scared of visiting alone I could've come along. There were a billion ways to go about this and you picked the absolute worst one." He couldn't even be mad at her: she'd rightfully called him out, same as always. 

  
"You got me there, I'm an asshole." he declared, lifting his other arm up in resignation. Sakura laughed.

  
"Okay. I can't make it down here tomorrow so it's your turn to visit, and it's about time you showed your face around here anyway."

  
"Wait, you're at the hospital right now?" he asked.

  
"Yeah, but visiting hours just ended, so your little reconciliation is gonna have to wait until tomorrow." 

  
"Oh" Naruto paused, turning to look at a digital clock hung up on his wall. Effectively, it was a quarter past three. He'd been losing track of time like crazy these past few days, "right...".

  
"In case it makes you feel any better, he's not really that mad at you. He just misses you and wants to see you." Sakura reassured him. Naruto felt his heart skip a beat.

  
"What exactly did he tell you?" he ran his other hand through his bird's nest of a hair and dropped his weight on the couch, slumping on the cushions.

  
"Well, at first he didn't wanna tell me anything, but I kept noticing he seemed... off. Like, way more off than he should be. So I insisted and today he finally budged: he told me everything. At first I was kinda mad at you; I wasn't even gonna call you, I was just gonna head over to your apartment and beat the crap out of you for being so stupid."

  
Naruto chuckled. A good old fashioned whooping from Sakura would've done the trick of knocking some sense into him.

  
"But then I realized, knowing you, you've probably been agonizing about this for days on end because you think Sasuke hates you and never wants to see you again, and that's the reason why you're too ashamed to come over and apologize."

  
"Correct." he announced, laughing out loud for the first time in days.

  
"What you did was super shitty Naruto. I know you've probably already whipped yourself with terrible thoughts these past few days, but it's still okay to remind you," she paused, "still: I think you deserve a second chance, because even if what you did was shitty and irresponsible, you're not a shitty person and Sasuke genuinely wants to see you again."

  
"Thank God" he said, tears slipping down his cheeks. He chuckled in that teary way where you want to laugh but you start crying.

  
"Are you crying right now? Do you want me to stop by for a hug?" she asked earnestly.

  
"No thanks, Sakura, but I appreciate it, thanks." he sniffled, a smile drawing on his face. On the other end of the line, Sakura smiled as well.

  
"I gotta go now. Promise me you'll visit him tomorrow and apologize?"

  
"Promise."

  
"But do you pinky promise, Naruto?" she playfully said, giggling. Naruto laughed.

  
"Yes, I -pinky- promise you I'll visit Sasuke tomorrow and apologize to him, Sakura."

  
"Good". 

  
-

  
He'd been rolling in bed for hours and hours, sleepless. He kicked his bedsheets to the footboard and got up to roam his small apartment. He checked the time on his phone: two-thirty am. Groaning, he stepped into the bathroom and turned on the lights. Maybe washing his face would clear his restless mind a bit.

  
It was too late to text anyone: Sakura had class in the morning, Shikamaru had his phone on silent when he slept so he wouldn't read his texts until morning, Kiba was likely sleeping, and he didn't feel comfortable venting in the groupchat. 

  
His mother's voice popped into his head like a song: _"if you ever need anything, or if you feel lonely, you can call me at any time, honey."_ He knew he could call Kushina at midnight if he wanted to and she'd answer him with that ray-of-sunshine voice of hers, but he hadn't told her about Sasuke's return yet and he wasn't sure if he wanted the word to spread 'round his hometown just yet. He didn't feel compelled to explain things to her right now, especially something as warped and heavy as this,-not that Kushina nor Minato would ever judge him for it, of course-.

  
He sighed. Guess it was just him alone with his thoughts for now.

  
Naruto felt like living, breathing filth. Nothing he'd ever done in his life had been quite as terrible as this. Burying his face into his hands, he cried and cried bitter tears. Dragging his feet back to bed, he defaulted to a fetal position and cried himself to sleep. 

  
He woke up to the blaring of his alarm a few hours later. He didn't have work in the morning and his lecture wasn't until the afternoon, so he had plenty time to kill. It took him less than five minutes to get dressed, slip into his shoes and leave the apartment to cross the street.

  
-

  
Visiting hours didn't start until about nine, but Naruto knew if he stayed another minute alone in his apartment he was gonna lose his mind. He lingered in the lobby for like half an hour, quietly dozing off in one of the seats, when a familiar mat of bright red hair walked through the sliding doors and greeted the secretaries in the entrance.

  
"Karin-sama!" Naruto called out. Karin stopped dead in her tracks and turned to meet the owner of the voice: blinking, she popped an automatic smile.

  
"My my, you're here early." she commented, "I was wondering when you'd show up again, I actually kind of missed you." 

  
Naruto didn't react to Karin's teasing. Karin's lip twitched slightly: _damn it, another borefest._

  
"Y-yeah, sorry." he said, scratching the back of his neck and deliberately avoiding Karin's penetrating gaze. He really wasn't in the mood to play test subject for this crazy heiress.

  
"Your pink-haired friend was here the last couple of days." she said flatly, "I'm guessing you were too busy to stop by and say 'hi'."

  
"I had business to attend to." he mumbled, still avoiding eye contact.

  
"Whatever could be more important than Sasuke-kun?" she taunted. 

  
That got him to look up at her. He gave her a mean old scowl. _Uh oh_ , she thought, _did I strike a nerve?_

  
"I'm here now, aren't I?" he said, not even making an effort to mask how much Karin's comment had pissed him off.   
"Yes, you are." she declared impassively. She scanned him from head to toe: he looked positively disheveled, like he hadn't slept or showered in days. Naruto felt unnerved being stared down like that by the likes of Karin. He buried his fists deep into his hoodie pockets, trying to conceal his discomfort.

  
"So, uh, are you going to visit Sasuke right now, or...?" he asked, trying to sound casual. He failed, of course; he sounded just about ready to trail after Karin like a lost puppy.

  
"I actually am. Do you wanna come with?" Karin suggested, taking on a more cheerful tone. Naruto visibly perked up, but simply nodded and followed after Karin once she started walking. 

  
The elevator ride was awkwardly silent, with Karin humming an unknown melody and Naruto feeling the walls close in on him with each passing second. He'd never been claustrophobic before, it was probably just Karin's presence that made him feel caged.

As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, Naruto picked up the pace and rushed towards Sasuke's room; but as he placed his hand on the door, Karin caught him by the wrist.

  
"Ah, ah, ah" she scolded, signalling 'no' with her index finger, "it's not visiting hours yet."

  
"Then what are _you_ doing here?" Naruto growled, visibly annoyed. Karin blinked once and raised her eyebrows. Feisty one, huh?

  
He was taller than her, like a head taller. He could've taken her out in one punch if he'd wanted to, or easily overpowered her in physical combat. But Karin wasn't intimidated the least bit by him: she held more real power over him than he did over her (plus she'd taken krav maga in high school).

  
"My family owns this fucking hospital, I can waltz into Sasuke's room at midnight if I want to and there isn't a goddamn soul who'd stop me."

  
Karin plastered a big ole' fake plastic smile that actually signified _"if you don't get out of my fucking way this instant I will have you kicked out in the blink of an eye."_ Naruto gave her a big ole' genuine scowl, promptly removed his hand and proceeded to lean against the wall next to the door.

  
"Thank you, Uzumaki-san." she said, still sporting that fake old smile. Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine: her teeth looked pointy, like fangs. 

  
She slid the door open. "I'll let you know when you can come in. You can wait here, if you'd like." With that, she stepped in and closed the door behind her.

  
-

  
"Who were you talking to?" Sasuke asked, hearing Karin come in. As always, he was staring out the window.

  
"You'll see." was all she was willing to answer. Sasuke turned to face his visitor and gave her a half-assed smile.  
"Why so mysterious?" he asked. Karin smiled at him.

  
"You seem in an awfully good mood today." she commented, sitting down in her usual spot, still avoiding the question.

  
"You think so?" he replied.

  
"Yeah, actually. Your therapist has told me you've made a lot of progress lately, I'm really proud of you."

  
"Thank you." Sasuke fiddled with his thumbs and slightly tugged at his sheets; he hated recieving compliments.   
"If you keep this up, you might get discharged by the end of the week." Karin announced, perking up. Her comment caught Sasuke's attention.

  
"What? Really?!" he exclaimed, failing to conceal his interest. Karin grinned, slightly mischiveously.

  
"Mhm. Have you decided where you're staying after your discharge?" she asked nonchalantly, "you know, you're always welcome to stay with me if you'd like."

  
"You've done enough for me, Karin. I don't think I could keep abusing your hospitality like that." 

  
"Oh, don't be silly, Sasuke-kun." she said with a high-pitched laugh, waving her hand in front of her face, "you're not abusing anything, I'd be more than happy to host you in one of my family's properties."

  
"I don't think I'd be comfortable overstaying my welcome like that." Sasuke lowered his gaze and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. 

  
Karin grinned opportunistically, thinking of the impatient blondie camping outside the door waiting to see Sasuke. She took his comment as a cue.

  
"Well, if you'd rather stay with someone else, I think I've got the perfect candidate for you." she announced, standing up. Sasuke followed her with his eyes: she walked up to the door and, sliding it open, popped her head outside and said: "You can come in now, Naruto."

  
His heart fucking stopped beating.

  
Naruto stepped into the room, slightly crestfallen. He bit his lip and greeted Sasuke with an awkward wave, barely meeting his eyes.

  
_Oh fuck, oh fuck oh fuckfuckfuckfuckshitshitshitshitshitshit._

  
Karin was standing by the door like a bellboy who just recieved the biggest tip of their career.

  
"Welp, seems like you two got a lot to catch up on, I'll take my leave now!" she gleefully blurted out before disappearing out the door in a flash, leaving the two alone to talk. She snickered nefariously as she walked down the hallway, knowing the wickedly delicious chaos she'd just provoked.

  
-

  
You could've cut the tension in that room with a butter knife. For the first time, there was silence between them, and it wasn't the comforting, mutual kind of silence they'd accustomed to. It was a heavy, sharp kind of silence that weighed on their chests and sped up their breathing and tensed the air. Neither of them dared to break it; whoever took the first step would make himself too vulnerable. 

  
Naruto stood petrified on one end of the room while Sasuke remained still as a statue on the other. Their eyes met like a shock of electricity; both wanted to say something, anything, but the stakes were too high to risk it all falling apart. 

  
Naruto cleared his throat. "I, uh..." he began his sentence, but let it die off before he could say anything else. Looking at his feet and scratching the back of his head, he produced another two or three attempts at a sentence before finally taking a deep breath.

  
"Alright, I'm just gonna say it, okay?" he hardened his expression and looked Sasuke dead in the eye, taking a step forward, "Sasuke, I'm sorry for ghosting you after our kiss. I'm sorry for kissing you so suddenly in the first place, a-and I'm sorry for panicking afterwards and not calling you or visiting you these past few days, I was a moron and a douche, I know. I was scared that you'd hate me or something, y'know, for kissing you and then leaving. E-especially after you opened up to me like that, it really wasn't okay for me to do something like this, and if you hate me or you never wanna see me again I completely understa-"

  
His stuttering apology was interrupted by a full-body tackle. Before he knew it, he was tangled in Sasuke's embrace, feeling the warmth of his body and the smoothness of his long raven hair falling over his shoulders. It took him a moment to catch his breath, and it took him another to bury his face in Sasuke's neck.

  
Sasuke gripped him tightly. He ran his hands through the length of Naruto's back, covertly slipping one underneath Naruto's shirt and hoodie to get a feel of his smooth, warm skin. Naruto gasped at the touch, but continued to let him explore. 

  
Naruto lifted his head up to meet Sasuke's eyes. He didn't realize he was crying until he felt Sasuke wipe away his tears with the back of his fingers. 

  
"Don't you ever, ever run off on me like that again, okay?" Sasuke said with a bittersweet smile, " _please_."

  
The waterworks flooded Naruto's eyes like an overflowing riverbank. He nodded his head "yes" and sniffled. Sasuke held up the blondie's chin with his fingers and looked into his eyes.

  
"You look like a mess" he said, carefully studying his expression.

  
"I am a mess, thank you for noticing." Naruto retorted with a snicker. Sasuke's heart sped up: _he's so beautiful I feel like I'm gonna die._

  
Naruto sighed and rested his head against Sasuke's chest. The raven-haired boy held him closer, placing one hand on his crown and another on Naruto's back. He ran his fingers through Naruto's blonde, messy locks, and Naruto almost purred at the feel of Sasuke's slender fingers caressing him so softly.

  
They stayed like that for a while; just standing there, holding each other, no words exchanged. The silence was back to being a kind, comforting one, one that brought them closer instead of dividing them. After a few minutes, Sasuke whispered into the boy's ear:

  
"Do you wanna get more comfortable?"

  
-

  
His words may have been an overstatement: they couldn't really fit on Sasuke's hospital bed very comfortably, but they made-do with what they had. 

  
"Who do they make these for, kindergarteners?" Naruto grumbled, shifting uncomfortably on the tiny ammount of space he was allowed on the narrow hospital bed. They were cuddling and holding each other as close as physically possible, Naruto half on top of Sasuke's body and him cradling Naruto in his arms. Sasuke's left leg was sandwiched between Naruto's while the blondie snaked his arms around Sasuke's waist and rested his upper body against Sasuke's chest. It wasn't very comfortable at all, but Sasuke felt blessed just being able to hold Naruto so close to him.

  
The raven-haired boy looked down at the pouting blondie and chuckled.

  
"Hospital beds aren't really made for cuddling sessions, dobe."

Naruto grinned. "You haven't called me that in years."

  
"I haven't seen you in years." He was trying to be sassy, but his heart skipped a beat everytime he saw Naruto's big beautiful dumb smile.

  
"I missed it, y'know?" Naruto rubbed his head against Sasuke's shoulder like a kitten, "you calling me that. You should do it more often."

  
"You like being called an idiot?" Sasuke teased, "I didn't take you for a masochist."

  
"Only if it's you who's calling me an idiot." Naruto buried his face in Sasuke's shoulder and pressed closer against the boy's slender body. Sasuke wondered if at some point he'd died and went to heaven, because this was dangerously close to it.

  
Moving his hand upwards, he began playing with the blondie's hair again. Naruto giggled.

  
"Why do you like messing up my hair so much?" 

  
"Your hair's already a mess to begin with." he boldly commented, tangling a lock of blond hair around his index finger. 

  
"Shut up, you need a haircut anyways." Naruto mumbled.

  
Sasuke kept playing with and caressing the blondie's hair for a while while Naruto purred beneath him, eyelids feeling heavier and heavier.

  
"Someone's sleepy." Sasuke pointed out, smiling from cheek to cheek from how adorable he found Naruto.

  
"If you keep doing that of course I'm gonna fall asleep, you dobe." he puffed, closing his eyes. 

  
"It doesn't work when you say it." 

  
"Whatever" Naruto said, yawning, "man, I can't wait for your discharge so we can actually get a decent-sized bed to cuddle in."

  
"Come again?" Sasuke inquired, taken aback by surprise.

  
"Yeah, 'cuz you're moving in with me, right?" the blondie's voice got progressively drowsier with every word. 

  
Sasuke's heart twinged. He shook Naruto's body a little, trying to keep him awake long enough for clarification on what he'd just said.

  
"I'm moving in with _you_?"

  
"I mean, if you want to..." and with those words, he drifted off to sleep in Sasuke's arms. 

  
Sasuke had never made so much effort to stay still in his life. He lay there petrified, lest the tiniest movement wake up his sleeping beauty. Continuing to caress the blondie's hair, Sasuke looked up at the ceiling and sighed with relief and joy.

  
_Of course I want to._

  
A smile stretched across Naruto's face, as if he'd heard his answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit longer than the others, I hope you're enjoying this story and if you've made it this far, thank you for reading!


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